Fair Processing Notice

Who we are

NHS Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for securing, planning, designing and paying for your NHS services, including planned and emergency hospital care, mental health, rehabilitation, community and primary medical care (GP) services. This is known as commissioning. We need to use information about you to enable us to do this effectively, efficiently and safely.

For further information please refer to the ‘About Us’ page here:  http://www.oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk/about-us/

Supplementary privacy note on COVID-19 for Patients/Service Users

This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the COVID-19 outbreak.  It supplements our main Privacy Notice.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the COVID-19 outbreak.  Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health.  Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the outbreak.  In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.

Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak.  Any information used or shared during the COVID-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data.  Further information is available on gov.uk here and some FAQs on this law are available here.

The Department of Health served a notice in March 2020 under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service Control of Patient Information Regulations 2002 (COPI) to process confidential patient information insofar as the purpose related to the outbreak of COVID-19.  The notice was in place until 31 March 2021 but with the continuing COVID-19 situation was extended again on 27 January 2021 until 30 September 2021 and further extended on 27 August 2021 until 31 March 2022.  On 14 February 2022 another extension of the COPI notice until 30 June 2022 was announced.

During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the COVID-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information.  This includes National Data Opt-outs. However in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply.  It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access requests, Freedom of Information requests and new opt-out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.

In order to look after your health and care needs we may share your confidential patient information including health and care records with clinical and non clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111.  We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email.

During this period of emergency we may offer you a consultation via telephone or video-conferencing.  By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.

We will also be required to share personal/confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the COVID-19 response is here.

NHS England and Improvement and NHS Digital have developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the health and care system to inform the COVID-19 response.  This includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and NHS Digital.  New data will include 999 call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data as well as data provided by patients themselves.  All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation.

In such circumstances where you tell us you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you.  Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.

What is this Fair Processing Notice (Privacy Notice) about?

This Fair Processing Notice (also known as a Privacy Notice) is part of our programme to make the data processing activities we are carrying out in order to meet our commissioning obligations transparent.

This notice tells you about information we collect and hold about you, what we do with it, how we will look after it and who we might share it with.

It covers information we collect directly from you or receive from other individuals or organisations.

If you require any additional information or explanation requests for this should be sent to this email address: oxon.gpc@nhs.net , or by post to:

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group

Jubilee House

John Smith Drive

Oxford Business Park South

Oxford

OX4 2LH

By telephone: 01865 336800

Reviews of and Changes to our Fair Processing Notice

We will keep our Fair Processing Notice under regular review. This notice was last reviewed in January 2022.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy and Confidentiality Issues

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only process data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.  This includes the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/680) (LED) and any applicable national Laws implementing them as amended from time to time. 

In addition, consideration will also be given to all applicable Law concerning privacy, confidentiality, the processing and sharing of personal data including the Human Rights Act 1998, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 as amended by the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015, the common law duty of confidentiality and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations.

NHS Oxfordshire CCG is a Data Controller as defined under the UK GDPR.  We are legally responsible for ensuring that all personal information that we process i.e. hold, obtain, record, use or share about you, is done in compliance with the Data Protection Principles as set out in Article 5 under UK GDPR.

All data controllers must notify the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of all personal information processing activities.

Our ICO Data Protection Registration number is  Z3620231 and  our  entry  can  be  found  in  the  Data  Protection  Register  on the  Information Commissioner’s Office website

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. The NHS Care Record Guarantee and NHS Constitution provide a commitment that all NHS organisations and those providing care on behalf of the NHS will use records about you in ways that respect your rights and promote your health and wellbeing.

If you are receiving services from the NHS, we share information that does not identify you (anonymised) with other NHS and social care partner agencies for the purpose of improving local services, research, audit and public health.

We would not share information that identifies you unless we have a fair and lawful basis such as:

  • You have given us permission;
  • To protect children and vulnerable adults;
  • When a formal court order has been served upon us;

and/or

  • When we are lawfully required to report certain information to the appropriate authorities e.g. to prevent fraud or a serious crime;
  • Emergency Planning reasons such as for protecting the health and safety of others;
  • When permission is given by the Secretary of State or the Health Research Authority on the advice of the Confidentiality Advisory Group to process confidential information without the explicit consent of individuals

The CCG is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

All information that we hold about you will be held securely and confidentially. We use administrative and technical controls to do this. We use strict controls to ensure that only a limited amount of authorised staff are able to see information that identifies you where it is appropriate to their role and is strictly on a need-to-know basis.

All of our staff, contractors and committee members receive role appropriate and on-going training to ensure they are aware of their personal responsibilities and have contractual obligations to uphold confidentiality, enforceable through disciplinary procedures.

We will only use the minimum amount of information necessary about you. We will only retain information in accordance with the schedules set out in the Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2021 (NHSX).

Overseas Transfers

 Your information will not be sent outside of the United Kingdom where the laws do not protect your privacy to the same extent as the law in the UK. We will never sell any information about you.

Your Rights

UK GDPR provides the following rights for individuals:

  • The right to be informed
  • The right of access
  • The right to rectification
  • The right to erasure
  • The right to restrict processing
  • The right to data portability
  • The right to object
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

If you do not agree to certain information being processed or shared with us, or by us, or have any concern, then please let us know.

You have the right to refuse/withdraw consent to information sharing at any time. The possible consequences can be fully explained to you and could include delays in receiving care. If you wish to discuss withdrawing consent please contact the CCGs Patient Advice and Liaison Service, occg.patientservices@nhs.net  - Telephone: 0800 052 6088

What is the patient opt-out?

The NHS Constitution states "You have the right to request that your confidential information is not used beyond your own direct care and treatment and to have your objections considered".

Direct care is defined as a clinical, social or public health activity concerned with the prevention, investigation and treatment of illness and the alleviation or suffering of an individual.

Indirect care is defined as work within the health and social care environment which does not involve the direct treatment or support of individuals e.g. research, commissioning and much of the work done in public health. 

There are several forms of opt-outs available at different levels. These include for example:

A.    Information directly collected by the CCG:

Your choices can be exercised by withdrawing your consent for the sharing of information that identifies you, unless there is no overriding legal obligation.

B.    Information not directly collected by the CCG, but collected by organisations that provide NHS services:

Type 1 Opt-Out

If you do not want personal confidential information that identifies you to be shared outside your GP practice, for purposes beyond your direct care, you can register a ‘Type 1 Opt-Out’ with your GP practice. This prevents your personal confidential information from being used other than in particular circumstances required by law, such as a public health emergency like an outbreak of a pandemic disease.

Patients are only able to register an opt-out at their GP practice.

Records for patients who have registered a ‘Type 1 Opt-Out’ will be identified using a particular code that will be applied to your medical records that will stop your records from being shared outside of your GP Practice.

National Data Opt-Out

The national data opt-out was introduced on 25 May 2018 and replaces the previous ‘type 2’ opt-out.  NHS Digital collects information from a range of places where people receive care, such as hospitals and community services.  The new programme provides a facility for individuals to opt-out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes.  For anyone who had an existing type 2 opt-out, it will have been automatically converted to a national data opt-out from 25 May 2018 and will receive a letter giving them more information and a leaflet explaining the new national data opt-out. The national data opt-out choice can be viewed or changed at any time by using the online service at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.  The deadline for health and care organisations to comply with national data opt-out policy had been the end of March 2022 but has been extended until 30 June 2022.  It has been extended to enable health and care organisations to focus their resources on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Complaints or questions

We try to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring concerns to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

To make a complaint or bring concerns to our attention, please contact us in writing:

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group

Jubilee House, 5510 John Smith Drive
Oxford Business Park South
Oxford

OX4 2LH

Free phone: 08000526088

E-mail: occg.patientservices@nhs.net

The information we will require when you make a complaint will be:

  • Your name, address and contact telephone number and those of the person that you may be complaining for; including their date of birth and NHS Number.
  • A summary of what has happened, giving dates where possible.
  • Which organisation provided the care or service.
  • A list of things that you are complaining about.
  • What you would like to happen as a result of your complaint

Subject Access Request (Exercising the Right of Access)

Staff are now able to access our offices but generally this is in cohorts on certain days.   Any electronic information held can be forwarded to a requester but paper information may take longer to provide.  This may cause a slight delay in responding to SAR requests.

Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a request under the Right of Access under GDPR, more commonly called a ‘Subject Access Request’ (SAR).

If we do hold information about you we will:

  • Give you a description of it;
  • Tell you why we are holding it;
  • Tell you who it could be disclosed to;
  • Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form; and
  • Correct any mistakes to information held

We will hold Subject Access Requests for three years after closure at which time the retention period will be reviewed on an individual basis. If a Subject Access Request has been subject to an appeal we will be required to hold your information for six years after closure at which time your information will be destroyed.

To make a request for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing to:

Email: scwcsu.sar@nhs.net

Telephone: 01865 336800

SCWCSU Information Governance Team (on behalf of Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group)

NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit

Southgate House

Pans Lane

Devizes

SN10 5EQ

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting us at the details above.

Confidentiality Advice and Support

The CCG has an Executive Director responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient information. This person is called the Caldicott Guardian who oversees the arrangements for the use and sharing of patient information.  The Caldicott Guardian plays a key role in ensuring that the NHS, Councils with Social Services and Public Health responsibilities and Partner Organisations satisfy the highest practical standards for handling patient information.  Acting as the ‘conscience’ of the organisation, the Caldicott Guardian actively supports work to enable information sharing where it is appropriate to share and advises on options for lawful and ethical processing of information.

Our Senior Responsible Information Officer (SIRO) is Gareth Kenworthy, Director of Finance:  g.kenworthy@nhs.net

Our Caldicott Guardian is Helen Ward, Deputy Director of Quality: helen.ward38@nhs.net

The CCG has a Data Protection Officer (DPO) responsible for monitoring compliance with the UK GDPR and other data protection legislation, the organisations data protection policies, awareness-raising, training and audits.  The DPO acts as a contact point for the ICO, our employees and the public. They co-operate with the ICO and will consult on any other matter relevant to Data Protection.

The contact details of our Data Protection Officer are as follows:

Lesley Corfield, Governance Manager: lesley.corfield@nhs.net

Personal Information we collect and hold about you

As a commissioner, we do not routinely hold or have access to your medical records. However, we may need to hold some personal information about you, for example:

  •  If you have made a complaint to us about healthcare that you have received and you have asked us to investigate it for you
  • If you ask us to provide funding for Continuing Healthcare services
  • If you ask us for our help or involvement with your healthcare, or where we are required to fund specific specialised treatment for a particular condition that is not already covered in our contracts with organisations that provide NHS care
  • If you ask us to keep you regularly informed and up-to-date about the work of the CCG, or if you are actively involved in our engagement and consultation activities or Service User or Patient Participation

Our records may include relevant information that you have told us, or information provided on your behalf by relatives or those who care for you and know you well, or from health professionals and other staff directly involved in your care and treatment.

Our records may be held on paper or in a computer system. The types of information that we may collect and use include the following:

 

TYPES OF INFORMATION

DESCRIPTION

 

Identifiable

This is data which contains details which can identify individuals such as name, address, telephone number, date of birth, postcode.

Pseudonymised

This is data that has undergone a technical process that replaces your identifiable information such as NHS number, postcode, date of birth with a unique identifier, which obscures the ‘real world’ identity of the individual patient to those working with the data.

Anonymised

This is data which does not identify individuals and where there is no risk that identification is likely to take place.

Aggregated

This is anonymised data which is grouped together so that it does not identify an individual

Personal Data

 

This is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly.

Personal Confidential Data

This is personal information about identified or identifiable individuals which should be kept private or secret.  The definition includes dead as well as living people and ‘confidential’ includes information ‘given in confidence’ and ‘that which is owed a duty of confidence’. 

Special Category Data

GDPR defines “special category data” as information about an individual’s: Racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious beliefs; trade union membership; health; sexual life; alleged criminal activity; or court proceedings.

 

Our Uses of Information

 

Although this is not an exhaustive detailed listing, the following table lists key examples of the purposes and rationale for why we collect and process information:

 

ACTIVITY PURPOSE

RATIONALE

 

Complaints

Rationale

We will process your personal information where it relates to a complaint where you have asked for our help or involvement.

 

The information we will require when you make a complaint will be:

  • Your name, address and contact telephone number and those of the person that you may be complaining for; including their date of birth and NHS Number
  • A summary of what has happened, giving dates where possible
  • Which organisation provided the care or service
  • A list of things that you are complaining about
  • What you would like to happen as a result of your complaint

 

Legal Basis

The CCG has a duty as to the improvement in quality of services under Section 14R NHS Act 2006 and will rely on your explicit consent as the basis to undertake such activities.

 

Complaint Process

When we receive a complaint from an individual we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

 

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service being provided.

 

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute.

If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

 

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with NHS retention policy. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

 

We may use service user stories, following upheld complaints, but the individual will remain anonymous. The service user stories will provide a summary of the concern, service improvements identified and how well the complaints procedure has been applied. Explicit consent will always be sought from the service user and carer or both before we use the service user story.

 

To make a complaint, please use the details on our http://www.oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk/about-us/patient-services.htm page. 

 

Benefits

Managing complaints enables the CCG to continuously improve the quality of the services they commission.

 

Retention Period

Information relating to complaints will be retained for 10 years after which time the information will be reviewed and if no longer necessary will be destroyed.

 

Individual Funding Request (IFR)

Rationale

We will collect and process your personal information where we are requested to fund a specific treatment or service for a condition that is not routinely offered by the NHS.

 

This is called an “Individual Funding Request” (IFR).

 

Legal Basis

The CCG has a duty to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities in access to health services and health outcomes achieved as outlined in the  National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No 2996) (Part 7-34 (1) and (2).

 

The clinical professional who first identifies that you may need the treatment will explain to you the information that we need to collect and process in order for us to assess your needs and commission your care and will ask for your informed consent for personal clinical information to be shared with the CCG.

 

Benefits

The Individual Funding Request process allows NHS Oxfordshire CCG to look at evidence for the safety and effectiveness of any treatment and ensures that the services we pay for will give patients the greatest health gains from the finite resources we have available.

 

Continuing Healthcare

Rationale

We will collect and process your identifiable information where you have asked us to undertake assessments for your continuing healthcare which is a package of care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS for individuals who are not in hospital but have been assessed as having a “primary health need”.

 

This is called “Continuing Health Care” (CHC)

 

Legal Basis

The CCG has a duty to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities in access to health services and health outcomes achieved as outlined in the National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No 2996) (Part 6-20-22.

 

The clinical professional who first sees you to discuss your needs will explain to you the information that they need to collect and process in order for us to assess your needs and commission your care and will ask for your informed consent for personal clinical information to be shared with the CCG.

 

Benefits

NHS Oxfordshire CCG can arrange a care and support package that meets your assessed needs.  The CCG can determine how your needs and care will be managed, where your care will be given e.g. in your own home or in a care home and identify which organization will be responsible for meeting your needs.

 

Retention Period

Information relating to Continuing Healthcare will be retained for 8 years after which time the information will be reviewed and if no longer necessary will be destroyed.

 

Medicines Optimisation

Rationale

Medicines Optimisation is about ensuring that the right patients get the right choice of medicine at the right time.   By focusing on patients and their experiences, the goal is to help patients to improve their outcomes, take their medicines correctly, avoid taking unnecessary medicines, reduce wastage of medicine and improve medicines safety.  Ultimately medicines optimisation can help encourage patient to take ownership of their treatment.

 

To achieve the above we will process your personal data for the following purposes:

 

  1. To carry out direct patient-facing activities on behalf of or at the request of a GP or General Practice.
  2. To undertake analysis using specific criteria to identify individual patients that may benefit from a safer, more effective and / or more efficient medicinal regimes and approaches. This analysis may be carried out proactively or at the direct request of a General Practices and all lead to recommendations to the responsible clinician.
  • To carry out administrative purposes which are necessary to ensure that the right payments are made and staff are suitably trained to undertake the work safely and effectively

 

Legal Basis

The CCG will rely on the below legal basis to process personal data for the purposes of medicines optimisation:

  • Health & Social Care Act 2012 (Section 251b) (duty to share)
  • NHS Act 2006 (Section 3a) (duty as to provision of certain services)
  • UK GDPR Articles 6(1)(e) and 9(2)(h)

 

Retention Period

The CCG will hold your information for a period of 5 years.  Before records are destroyed we will review information held and take into account any further retention periods which may oblige us to hold the information for a further period of time.

 

Benefits

Oxfordshire CCG can carry out Medicines Optimisation activities to ensure that patients receive prescribed items which are clinically effective and cost effective based on individual, local and national health population needs.  We can also benchmark and share best practice at a practice level, locally and nationally to further improve our patients’ experience of prescribed items and to the benefit of our local population.

 

Clinical Concerns

Rationale

Clinical Concerns was developed in response to the Francis Report 2013 and is a process through which the CCG works in collaboration with General Practices and other local healthcare Providers to gather intelligence about the quality and safety of local services and to facilitate learning and improvement.

 

Your General Practice has appointed the CCG as the Data Processor to process Clinical Concerns on their behalf and have a Data Processing Agreement in place which identifies General Practice as the Data Controller and the CCG as the Data Processor. The Data Processing Agreement details the boundaries of sharing information and is reviewed on an annual basis.

 

In order to facilitate the investigation of Clinical Concerns, your General Practice will provide the CCG with your NHS Number. The CCG will share this with the relevant healthcare providers involved in your care and treatment in order for them to investigate. The aim of this investigation is to resolve any outstanding issues in relation to the individual’s care and treatment and to provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the service. The CCG will not use your NHS number for any other purpose.

 

Legal Basis

The General Practice will rely on UK GDPR Articles 6(1)(e) and 9(2)(h) and the Health & Social Care Act (duty to share) as a legal basis to raise a Clinical Concern. The General Practice will provide you with comprehensive information by way of a Fair Processing Notice which clearly details the data sharing relationship with the CCG.

 

The CCG will rely on the NHS Act 2006 Section 13R and 14Q as a legal basis to support their enactment of the following commissioning duties:

  • Information on safety of services provided by the health service
  • Duty as to effectiveness and efficiency
  • Duty as to the improvement in the quality of services

Benefits

To assist with the gathering of intelligence about the quality and safety of local services and to facilitate learning and improvement.

 

Retention Period

The CCG will hold your information for a period of 10 years following the closure of a clinical concern. Before records are destroyed we will review information held and take into account any serious incident retentions which may require us to hold the information for a further period of time. Each case will be reviewed on an individual basis.

 

Assuring Transformation

Rationale

Assuring Transformation data is information we collect about people with a learning disability, autism or both who are getting care in hospitals for their mental health or because they have had behavior that can be challenging. 

 

The CCG collects this data each month from healthcare Providers which is collected by NHS Digital. NHS Digital will publish a monthly progress report and provide this information to NHS England.  These reports do not include any personal information.  There is a calendar that tells you exactly when it will be published.

 

This information informs NHS England of:

  • how many people are in hospital
  • how long they have been in hospital for
  • when their care and treatment is checked
  • what kind of hospital they are in

 

NHS England will check this information to make sure people are not in hospital if they would be better looked after in the community.

 

NHS England has produced an Assuring Transformation Easy Read Leaflet which can be obtained from your healthcare Provider.

 

Legal Basis

Assuring Transformation is a mandatory data collection of which has been approved by the Secretary of State under Regulations enabled by Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 reference CAG 8-02(a-c)/2014.

 

If you do not want your information to be included in these collections please contact us.

 

Benefits

The published report allows the public to check if the NHS is doing a good job of looking after people with a learning disability, autism or both who are in hospital and assists NHS England in determining whether patients are getting the right care in the right place.

 

Safeguarding

Rationale

Safeguarding means protecting peoples' health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. It is a key part of providing high-quality health and social care.  The CCG will participate in Serious Case Reviews undertaken by either the local Children’s Safeguarding Boards or the Adult Safeguarding Boards for continued learning, to minimize risk and to improve services.  As part of delegated commissioning arrangements the Designated Adults Safeguarding Manager (DASM) will act on behalf of Primary Care and will be provided with personal confidential information specific to an individual case. The DASM will review this information and produce an anonymized report which is signed by the organisations Caldicott Guardian and submitted to the relevant Children or Adult Safeguarding Boards at which point personal confidential information provided to the CCG is destroyed.

 

Legal Basis

 

The CCG has a statutory responsibility under the Children Act 2004, Care Act 2014 and safeguarding provision within the Data Protection Act 2018 (Schedule 1, Part 2, Subsections 18 and 19) to ensure the safety of all children, and the safety of adults at risk of abuse and neglect. 

 

Benefits

Safeguarding is a fundamental element of the CCGs commissioning plans and forms a core part of the commissioning assurance process.

 

Retention Period

The CCG will hold your information for a period of 8 years following the closure of a case. Before records are destroyed we will review information held and take into account any serious incident retentions which may require us to hold the information for a further period of time. Each case will be reviewed on an individual basis.

 

Risk stratification

 

Rationale

Risk stratification is a process that uses de-identified personal data from health care services to determine which people are at risk of experiencing certain outcomes, such as unplanned hospital admissions.

 

Data Processing activities for Risk Stratification

Risk stratification tools are used by CCGs to analyse the overall health of a population using data which is anonymised in line with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Anonymisation Code of Practice.  The combined CCGs Secondary Use Service (SUS) data and GP data which contains an identifier (usually NHS number) is made available to clinicians with a legitimate relationship with their patients to enable them to identify which patients should be offered targeted preventative support to reduce those risks.

 

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group does not undertake nor does it commission any other third party at the moment to do Risk Stratification on its behalf.

Further information about risk stratification is available from: https//www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/risk-stratification/

Legal Basis

The use of identifiable data by CCGs and GPs for risk stratification has been approved by the Secretary of State, through the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority and this approval has been extended to October 2018 which gives us a statutory legal basis under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 to process data for risk stratification purposes which sets aside the duty of confidentiality. We are committed to conducting risk stratification effectively, in ways that are consistent with the laws that protect your confidentiality. 

Under UK GDPR/DPA 2018, for personal data we rely on Article (6.1.e ) – it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. For special category data, we rely on Article (9.2.h) – it is necessary for the reasons of preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment.

Benefits

CCGs and GPs use risk stratification tools as part of their local strategies for supporting patients with long-term conditions and to help and prevent avoidable admissions.  Typically this is because patients have a long term condition such as    Chronic    Obstructive    Pulmonary    Disease.    NHS    England encourages CCGs and GPs to use risk stratification tools as part of their local strategies for supporting patients with long-term conditions and to help and prevent avoidable admissions.

 

Knowledge of the risk profile of our population will help the CCG to commission appropriate preventative services and to promote quality improvement in collaboration with our GP practices.

 

Invoice Validation

Rationale

The Invoice Validation process ensures that care providers who provide you with care and treatment can be paid for the services they provide.

 

Care providers submit their invoices to NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) who process invoices on behalf of NHS Oxfordshire CCG. NHS SBS do not require and should not receive any patient confidential data to provide their services.

 

There are situations where identifiable patient personal data is required to ensure that the correct service provider is paid.

 

In such cases service providers are required to send identifiable patient personal data such as NHS Number to a Controlled Environment for Finance (CEfF) which is a secure restricted area within SCWCSU who process this data on our behalf and indicate which invoices we can validate (authorize) for payment. NHS England has published guidance on how invoices must be processed and Commissioners have a duty to detect report and investigate any incidents of where a breach of confidentiality has been made.

 

For more information see: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/in-val/invoice- validation-faqs/

 

Legal Basis

The legal basis for SCWCSU to receive personal identifiable data for the purposes of invoice validation is provided by Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006.

Under UK GDPR/DPA 2018, for personal data we rely on Article (6.1.e ) – it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. For special category data, we rely on Article (9.2.h) – it is necessary for the reasons of preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment.

 

Benefits

The invoice validation process supports the delivery of patient care by ensuring that:

  • service providers are paid for patients treatment,
  • enables services to be planned, commissioned, managed and subjected to financial control,
  • enables commissioners to confirm that they are paying appropriately for the treatment of patients for whom they are responsible
  • fulfilling commissioners duties of fiscal probity and scrutiny
  • enables invoices to be challenged and disputed or discrepancies resolved

 

Patient and Public Involvement

Rationale

If you have asked us to keep you regularly informed and up to date about the work of the CCG or if you are actively involved in our engagement and consultation activities or patient participation groups, we will collect and process personal confidential data which you share with us.

 

This is called ‘Patient and Public Involvement’

 

Where you submit your details to us for involvement purposes, we will only use your information for this purpose. You can opt out at any time by contacting us using our contact details at the end of this document.

 

Individuals can also complete online surveys via our website in which you will be asked to agree to the Terms and Conditions of using the site and will be asked for your explicit consent for us to use your information in which we will publish survey results.  We will only use your information for this purpose of which you can opt out at any time.

 

Legal Basis

Under the NHS Act 2006 Section 14Z2, the CCG has a duty, in relation to health services provided (or which are to be provided) under arrangements made by the CCG exercising its functions, to make arrangements so as to secure that individuals to whom the services are being (or may be) provided are involved at various specified stages.

 

We will rely on your explicit consent for this purpose.

 

Where you have agreed to participate in online surveys on our website, your information will be held for 6 months following the publication of survey results after which you’re your information will be deleted.  If we need to keep your information for longer we will follow the OCCG retention period.

 

Benefits

If you would like to find out more information on how to get involved and how this benefits NHS Oxfordshire CCG, please see our Getting Involved pages: http://www.oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk/about-us/our-uses-of-information.htm#risk

 

Records Retention

Where you have provided us with your contact details for us to keep in touch, we will contact you periodically to ensure you are still happy for us to hold these details. If we do not hear back from you we will delete your information from our database. 

 

Commissioning

Rationale

To collect NHS data about service users that we are responsible for.

 

Legal Basis

Under the Health & Social Care Act 2012 the CCG has a statutory legal basis for collecting and processing information for the purposes of commissioning.

Under UK GDPR/DPA 2018, for personal data we rely on Article (6.1.e ) – it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. For special category data, we rely on Article (9.2.h) – it is necessary for the reasons of preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment.

 

Processing Activities

Hospitals and community organisations that provide NHS-funded care are legally and contractually obliged to submit certain information to NHS Digital about services provided to our service users.

 

This information is generally known as commissioning datasets. The CCG obtains these datasets from NHS Digital and they relate to service users registered with GP Practices that are members of the CCG.

 

These datasets are then used in a format that does not directly identify you, for wider NHS purposes such as managing and funding the NHS, monitoring activity to understand and plan the health needs of the population, and to gain evidence that will improve health and care through research.

 

The datasets include information about the service users who have received care and treatment from those services that we are responsible for funding. The CCG is unable to identify you from these datasets. They do not include your name, home address, NHS number, post code or date of birth.  Information such as your age, ethnicity and gender, as well as coded information about any clinic or accident and emergency attendances, hospital admissions and treatment will be included.

 

The specific terms and conditions and security controls that we are obliged to follow when using these commissioning datasets can also be found on the NHS Digital website.

 

We also receive similar information from GP Practices within our CCG membership that does not identify you.

 

Benefits

We use these datasets for a number of purposes such as:

  • Performance managing contracts;
  • Reviewing the care delivered by providers to ensure service users are receiving quality and cost effective care;
  • To prepare statistics on NHS performance to understand health needs and support service re-design, modernisation and improvement;
  • To help us plan future services to ensure they continue to meet our local population needs;
  • To reconcile claims for payments for services received in your GP Practice;
  • To audit NHS accounts and

 

If you do not wish your information to be included in these datasets, even though it does not directly identify you to us, please contact your GP Practice and they can apply a code to your records that will stop your information from being included.

 

Primary and Secondary Care

Rationale

We commission a number of organisations to provide primary and secondary healthcare services to you. These organisations may be within the NHS or outside the NHS. 

 

Primary Care services cover GP Practices, Dental Practices, Community Pharmacies and high street Optometrists.

 

Secondary Care services are usually (but not always) delivered in a hospital or clinic with the initial referral being received from Primary Care.

 

These organisations may share identifiable, pseudonymised, anonymized, aggregated and personal confidential data information with us for the following purposes:

 

  • To look after the health of the general public such as notifying central NHS groups of outbreaks of infectious diseases
  • To undertake clinical audit of the quality of services provided
  • To carry out risk profiling to identify patients who would benefit from proactive intervention
  • To perform case management where the NHS offers intervention and integrated care programmes involving multiple health and social care providers
  • To report and investigate, complaints, claims and untoward incidents
  • To prepare statistics on our performance for the Department of Health
  • To review out care to make sure that it is of the highest standard

 

Legal Basis

The Health & Social Care Act 2012 allows us to collect your information and is only accessed a limited number of authorised staff and not disclosed to other organisations. We will never share your personal information unless a legal basis has been identified for the different purposes of sharing or we have obtained your explicit consent.

 

Benefits

Through sharing information ethically and lawfully the NHS is able to improve its understanding of the most important health needs and the quality of the treatment and care provided.

 

Cabinet Office

Rationale

The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises. Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one body against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match. This is usually personal information.  Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.

 

We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative: a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, as detailed here.

 

Legal Basis

The use of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under UK GDPR.

 

Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice.

 

View further information on the Cabinet Office’s legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-data-matching-practice-for-national-fraud-initiative

 

National Registries

National Registries (such as the Learning Disabilities Register) have statutory permission under Section 251 (16/CAG/0056) of the NHS Act 2006, to collect and hold service user identifiable information without the need to seek informed consent from each individual service user.

 

Research

Data may be collected for the purpose of research.

 

Research can be undertaken using information that does not identify you (anonymised). The law does not require your consent to be obtained in this case but information should be made available to you where your anonymised data is used for the purposes of research. Information can be made available either in waiting rooms, using information leaflets, published on notice boards, waiting room screens and/or an organisations website. 

 

Where identifiable data is needed for research, you may be approached by an organisation who has provided you with care and asked if you wish to participate in a research study.  Where identifiable data is required, an organisation must obtain explicit consent.  A member of the research team will discuss the research study with you and will provide you with information on what the study is about, what information they wish to collect, how to opt out and who to contact for more information. 

 

If you do not wish your information to be used for research, whether identifiable or non-identifiable, please let your GP Practice know. They will add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for research.

 

Legal Basis

Your explicit consent will be obtained as the legal basis to process identifiable information for research purposes.

 

Benefits

Results from research studies can provide a direct benefit to individuals who take part in medical trials and indirect benefit to the population as a whole.

 

Retention Period

Retention periods will be included in the research study Information Leaflet related to each study.

 

Support Services

The CCG will use other organisations to provide us with support services. These organisations will process information on our behalf. These organisations are known as “data processors” and will provide additional expertise to support the work of Oxfordshire CCG:

Legal Basis

Oxfordshire CCG are committed to ensure that a legal basis is identified for all flows of personal identifiable to external organisations. 

The CCG ensures that this is supported by use of an NHS Standard Contract which is mandated by NHS England for use by commissioners for all contracts for healthcare services other than primary care.  The NHS Standard Contract covers:

  •  confidential information of all parties (Section: GC20),
  • patient confidentiality, data protection, freedom of information and transparency (Section: GC21)

In addition a Data Sharing Framework Contract (DSFC) and Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) are in place with NHS Digital for the release of patient level data and Service Level Agreements are in place with NHS South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCWCSU) for the services they provide.

The below tables outline the organisations we use, services they provide and CCGs legal basis for processing your information:

 

NHS SOUTH, CENTRAL & WEST COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT (SCWCSU)

 

Purpose

Type of Data

Legal Basis

PALs and Complaints

  • personal
  • special category

NHS Act – Section 14R / Consent

Freedom of Information Requests

 

  • personal

GDPR & Data Protection Act / Consent

Subject Access Requests

  • personal
  • special category

GDPR & Data Protection Act / Consent

Invoice Validation

 

  • personal
  • special category

S251 NHS Act 2006

Assurance:

  • Legal Basis identified for each data flow
  • Service Level Agreement in place between OCCG and SCWCSU
  • Data Processing Agreement between OCCG and SCWCSU

 

 

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

 

Purpose

Type of Data

Legal Basis

Continuing Healthcare

  • personal
  • special category

Health and Social Care Act 2012 / Consent

Mental Health, Learning Disability, Autism

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

 

 

NHS SOUTH, CENTRAL & WEST COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT (SCWCSU)

NHS SCWCSU uses Microsoft cloud services (MS Azure) for Cloud storage.

 

Purpose

Type of Data

Legal Basis

Invoice Validation

  • personal

S251 NHS Act 2006

Risk Stratification (currently not undertaken)

  • personal
  • special category

S251 NHS Act 2006

Secondary Use Service (SUS)

  • personal
  • special category

pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Local Flows from Acute, Ambulance, Demand for Service, Diagnostic Services, Emergency Care, Experience, Quality & Outcomes, Mental Health, Population, Primary Care, Public Health Screening

  • personal
  • special category

pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Mental Health Services

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Improving Access to Psychological Therapy

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Maternity

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Diagnostic Imaging

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Child and Young People Health Service

  • special category pseudonymised

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Additional Assurance:

  • Legal Basis identified or each data flow
  • Data Sharing Framework Contract
  • Data Sharing Agreement

 

   LIAISON FINANCIAL SERVICES
 Purpose  Type of Data  Legal Basis
 Invoice Validation Personal S251 NHS Act 2006

 

   NORTH EAST LONDON CSU
 Purpose Type of Data Legal Basis

 Local Flows

Personal Health and Social Care Act 2012

 

 

OPTUM HEALTH SOLUTIONS (UK) LTD

 

Purpose

Type of Data

Legal Basis

Processing of pseudonymised SUS data and local data flows to provide contract management for London Providers commissioned by the group of CCGs known as The London Focus Group.

  • Pseudonymised SUS data and local flows from London Providers (Admitted patient Care, A&E, Outpatients and Critical Care data extracts).

Health and Social Care Act 2012

 Optum for wave 2 data processing - pseudonymised GP and social care data for the purpose of Population Health Management

[Optum uses Amazon's Web Services (AWS) for Cloud storage]

  • Pseudonymised SUS, MHSDS, CSDS data

 Health and Social Care Act 2012

Additional Assurance:

  • Legal Basis is identified for data flows
  • NHS National Standard Contract
  • Achieved full ISO 27001 Accreditation
  • Information Governance Toolkit Level 2 Compliance (ODS Code: 8GW39)
  • Service Contract and Data Processing Agreement between CCGs and Optum

Data Linkage

Data may be de-identified and linked by organisations so that it can be used to improve health care and development and monitor NHS performance. Where data is used for these statistical purposes, stringent measures are taken to ensure individual patients cannot be identified. When analysing current health services and proposals for developing future services it is sometimes necessary to link separate individual datasets to be able to produce a comprehensive evaluation.  This may involve linking primary care GP data with other data such as secondary uses service (SUS) data (inpatient, outpatient and A&E).  In some cases there may also be a need to link local datasets which could include a range of acute-based services such as radiology, physiotherapy, audiology etc, as well as mental health and community-based services such as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, district nursing, podiatry etc.  When carrying out this analysis, the linkage of these datasets is always done using a unique identifier that does not reveal a person’s identity as the CCG does not have any access to patient identifiable data.

Data Retention

Oxfordshire CCG will approach the management of its business records in line with their Records Management Policy which sets out roles and responsibilities for records management and the key operating principles for record keeping across the business and manages records in line with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice for Health and Social Care which sets the required standards of practice in the management of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England, based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.

The CCGs records shall not be retained indefinitely. At the end of the retention, records shall be disposed of. In most cases this will mean controlled destruction; a small percentage of records may become archived meaning that they will be retained indefinitely under the Public Records Act.

Information Governance

Information Governance is to do with the way organisations ‘process’ or handle information. It covers personal information relating to patients, service users, employees, and corporate information (financial and accounting records.)

The Organisations that we do business with are subject to the same legal rules and conditions for keeping personal confidential data and secure and are underpinned by a contract with us.

Before awarding any contract, we ensure that organisations will look after your information to the same high standards that we do. Those organisations can only use your information for the service we have contracted them for and cannot use it for any other purpose.  All organisations are required to complete a Department of Health Information Governance Toolkit which draws together the legal rules and central guidance and presents them in a single standard set of information governance requirements which covers management structures and responsibilities, confidentiality, data protection and information security. All organisations are required to achieve a Level 2 score which demonstrates that organisations can be trusted to maintain the confidentiality and security of personal information and in-turn increases public confidence that the NHS and its partners can be trusted with personal data.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding how we use your information, please contact us at:

Post:

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group
Jubilee House, John Smith Drive
Oxford Business Park South
Oxford OX4 2LH

 Tel: 01865 336800

 Email:  oxon.gpc@nhs.net

Independent Advice

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact the:

Information Commissioner Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,

Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Phone: 08456 306060 or 01625 545745

Website: https://ico.org.uk/

Further information

Further information about the way in which the NHS uses personal confidential data and your rights in that respect can be found in:

The NHS Care Record Guarantee:

This guarantee is a commitment that NHS organisations and those providing care on behalf of the NHS will use records about you in ways that respect your rights and promote your health and wellbeing.

The NHS Constitution:

The Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out rights to which patients, public and staff are entitled, and pledges which the NHS is committed to achieve, together with responsibilities, which the public, patients and staff owe to one another to ensure that the NHS operates fairly and effectively

To share or not to share? Information Governance Review:

This was an independent review of information about service users shared across the health and care system led by Dame Fiona Caldicott and was conducted in 2012.

NHS Commissioning Board – Better Data, Informed Commissioning, Driving Improved Outcomes: Clinical Data Sets:  

This provides further information about the data flowing within the NHS to support commissioning.

NHS Digital – Guide to Confidentiality:  

NHS Digital are the trusted national provider of high-quality information, data and IT systems for health and social care and are responsible for collecting data from across the health and social care system.

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):  

The ICO is the Regulator for GDPR and offer independent advice and guidance on the law and personal data, including your rights and how to access your personal information.

Health Research Authority:

The HRA protects and promotes the interests of patients and the public in health and social care research.